School union chief: Arrest was false

Judge threw out all but one misdemeanor charge in 1991 Los Angeles case

Robert Eugene Dow, the newly elected president of Palm Beach County's teachers union, was arrested in 1991 by Los Angeles police on 15 misdemeanor counts involving an alleged illegal sex club, he said Tuesday. But most of the charges were dropped and he was not prosecuted for any sex crimes. He said he received a "high, five-figure" settlement from a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles.

Dow - chosen Friday to lead the Palm Beach County Classroom Teachers Association - had pleaded no contest to a single charge of electrical wiring without a permit.

A Los Angeles Municipal Court judge in 1993 dismissed 14 misdemeanor zoning, building and fire-code charges against Dow and his wife because police had obtained an illegal search warrant of the couple's home, according to a 1993 Los Angeles Times article.

On Tuesday, Dow told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that the Los Angeles city attorney spread false, "lurid" allegations that the couple ran a "sexual encounter business" for "swingers" out of their San Fernando Valley home.

Dow said he and his wife held private house parties with other couples, but he denied what he termed "really, really ugly" characterizations by authorities that it was a sex club.

"Is it true that we were engaged in activity that some people consider odd? We absolutely were," Dow said in a telephone interview Tuesday, fresh off his upset, union election victory against incumbent President Theo Harris. In another published report, Dow said he no longer engages in those activities.

A drama teacher at Western Pines Middle School in The Acreage, Dow is to take his union post July 1 and lead about 8,000 dues-paying members.

"I figured this may come up," Dow, 63, said when asked early Tuesday afternoon by the Sun-Sentinel about the Los Angeles case. He said he planned to tell his boss and others about it. "I'll lose my job and any possibility of doing any good in Palm Beach County."

Dow said he did not report the misdemeanor arrest or no-contest plea on his late 1990s job application to the Palm Beach County School District, nor had he told anyone at Western Pines or in the teachers union.

"It was a false arrest so none of it ever counted; all that stuff was dismissed," said Dow, who began substitute teaching in the county in March 1998.

The school district requires applicants to list criminal convictions, said Darron Davis, chief of human resources. But officials could not be reached for comment later Tuesday to explain what the policy was when Dow applied.

Dow's district personnel file was not available because of a 10-day waiting period under the state's public-records law.

Dow has no criminal history in Florida, according to Florida Department of Law Enforcement records. All school district employees must undergo a criminal background check prior to employment.

"Arrests may not show up on a criminal background check, but convictions will," Davis said.

A Los Angeles city attorney's 1991 news release alleged that the "club" provided its patrons with condoms, sexual lubricants and towels, as well as access to rooms designated for group sex, according to the Times. Undercover male and female vice officers posing as a "swinging couple" raided the four-bedroom house, the newspaper reported.

On Tuesday, Dow accused the city of Los Angeles of making it "look as bad as possible." He added, "I'm not ashamed of anything I've ever done in my life."

Los Angeles city attorney spokesman Nick Velasquez on Tuesday confirmed Dow's arrest on 15 misdemeanor counts and Dow's plea on the single infraction. Velasquez said he could not confirm a settlement payout to Dow because computer records did not go back that far.

According to a resume supplied by Dow to the Sun-Sentinel, he worked at the Wine Bistro Restaurant in Studio City, Calif., from 1980 to 1996.

After moving to Palm Beach County to be near wife Sharon's parents, "I ended up being a substitute and it just evolved." He became a full-time language arts teacher at Western Pines in 2001.

Dow has been twice nominated by his peers to represent the school in the prestigious William T. Dwyer Excellence in Education awards program. He also sponsors the drama and chess clubs on campus, according to his resume.

Dow made his first bid for the teachers union presidency this year, challenging Harris and two other candidates. Dow posted two speeches on the YouTube video Web site, denouncing the school district and Harris for failing to provide adequate raises and pay for the county's 12,000 teachers.

During his campaign, Dow touted endorsements from the Palm Beach County Police Benevolent Association and the American Postal Workers Union.

Dow and Harris made it to an online runoff election; Dow captured nearly 64 percent of about 2,329 votes cast, according to preliminary results.

When asked Tuesday for comment about Dow's arrest background, Harris said, "I'd rather stay out of it."

Barbara Taub-Albert, a speech teacher who sits on the union's board of directors, said she was stunned by the news.

"You don't think about people having things in their past ever running for office," Taub-Albert said. "I never thought of a teacher in that way before."

Staff Researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report.

Marc Freeman can be reached at mjfreeman@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6642.